Our nation’s secrets, stuck in a broken system

Jack Goldsmith's article published today in The Washington Post entitled "Our nation's secrets, stuck in a broken system," discusses Bob Woodward's new book, Obama Wars, and the revealing information it contains regarding the inner workings of the administration's national security team and the development of its policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Woodward's book and Goldsmith's article note that what is perhaps most remarkable is " how much classified information is in these revelations — so much classified information, in fact, that it calls into question the legitimacy of the presidential secrecy system." Goldsmith notes that, "even if the giant disclosures of classified information have no legal consequences, they still harm national security by delegitimizing the presidential classification system."

For the full text of today's article, including a discussion of the effects on the credibility of the system, click here.